Religious Conformity in the 16th Century England: Forcing Religion on an Unwilling Public

Gloucester: February 9 1555. A small fire is kindled starting slowly but gradually raising to an inferno at the heart of which stands John Hooper. Who, "knocked his breast with his hands until one of his arms fell off, and then knocked still with the other, while the fat, water, and blood dropped out at this finger's ends..."[1] Oxford: October 15, 1555.

A fire rages hot outside of the Bacardo gate, at the center of which stands Bishop Hugh Latimer. "His body forcibly penetrated by the fire," his "blood [flowing] abundantly from the heart; as if to verify his constant desire that his heart's blood might be shed in defense of the Gospel."[1] With the ascension of Mary to the throne, England was plunged into a violent and bloody religious turmoil.

A pure Catholic at her core, Mary immediately began to turn England from the Protestantism that had flowered under Edward VI, the Acts of Uniformity, and ideas such as the Book of Common Prayer, and return the nation to, as she stated in a letter to Oxford University, "[the] form and order...according to the ancient foundations and ordinances of the founders and grants of our progenitors,"[3] meaning-of course-Catholicism.

This meant different things for different people. For John Hooper and Hugh Latimer it meant the martyrdoms they received as illustrated above by John Foxe in his Acts and Monuments commonly known as The Book of Martyrs. For others not willing or wanting to become martyrs, it meant either leaving England, as Jon Knox did and becoming one of the many Marian Exiles, or living a secret live as one of nicodemites such as Sir William Cecil and Sir John Cheke elected to do.

However, for others such as Reginald Pole and Stephen Gardiner it meant a return to England-and power. Reginald Pole, as we find in "The English Reformation," was sent by the Pope as the "Cardinal and papal legate for the restoration of England to Catholic obedience."